West Coast Water Justice

In this episode, we follow up with Clifford Lee, retired Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice. We dive deeper into water policy and hear about critical changes needed to protect our most valuable resource: water! We are faced with a 27-year delay in the adoption of new scientific recommendations and species protections for the SF Bay Delta, the lifeblood of our state. While at the same time critical aquifers across the state are being over-pumped and going d...

Currently, California is on track to lose most if not all native fish species within this century if we don't adapt to climate change. We talk with Clifford Lee; retired deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice who served the state for 40 years. Clifford shares his expertise and recommendations for updating California's water policy to mitigate the effects of climate change. He explains some of the policies that got us here and the nuts and bolts of...

Keith Parker, Senior Fisheries Biologist for the Yurok Tribe explains some of the basics that make up a healthy fishery and river ecosystem. We learn about the different salmon runs and basic salmon genetics. He shares his background in Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science and how together they inform the Klamath Dam Removal process. Keith makes it clear that the loss of these fish and traditional foods are as much a social justice issue as a biological issue. To lo...

In this episode, we interview Doug Obegi, Senior Attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Doug shares his expertise about the history of our archaic and inequitable water rights system and how protections for fish and wildlife, and the tribes, fishing jobs, and communities that depend on these environmental protections, are constantly under threat from industrial agriculture and large corporations. He explains how California's water rights and diversions are over-allocated and un...

We follow up with hereditary Chief Caleen Sisk about the expansive watershed of the Sacramento River from the headwaters of the Winnemem Waywayket all the way to the Bay-Delta and the Pacific Ocean. We learn about the history of this once epic fishery and what it will take to bring the Salmon back home over the Shasta rim dam, and how New Zealand can help.The management of California's Bay Delta and its tributaries is complicated. The Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds and Delta have...

In this episode, we hear from hereditary Chief Caleen Sisk of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. Their tribal homelands encompass the Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud River) and much of the land now flooded by the Shasta Reservoir, California's largest. The Winnemum Wintu's resistance story exemplifies many of the inequities in California's land and water rights. Get InvolvedWinnemem Wintu Tribe Run 4 SalmonPetition to help the McCloud RiverRelevant news articles Save California ...

Dr. Beth Rose Middleton Manning is a Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis. In this episode, we learn about water rights in California and how Native lands and communities have been treated as sacrifice zones for national priorities of irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric development. Beth Rose shares her research on the North Fork of the Feather River and California’s State Water Project, with a focus on Indigenous resistance and activism. We discuss how Indigenous h...

A call to action from Morning Star Gali, a member of the Ajumawi band of Pit River Tribe. This episode is dedicated to Native American Heritage Month and focuses on Native resistance, justice, and action in California. Join Save California Salmon (SCS) with Native Communities in the fight for our environment and engage in public comments on important salmon, water, and land issues. There are opportunities to speak up about the proposed Sites Reservoir, the Delta Tunnel, numerous California da...

We talk with Glen Spain, the North West Regional Director for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA). Glen shares his experience over the last 40 years working with the Klamath Basin. We hear about how the community has come together to address critical concerns from farmers, landowners and cities, and how they've found a compromise in order to move forward. He shares data collected over half a century that overwhelmingly indicates that dam removal is the best ...

Brook Thompson (She/Her) is a Yurok and Karuk Native from Northern California. Growing up she lived and fished on the same land that her ancestors have been on for over 12,000 years. Brook fights for water and Native American rights through speaking to groups and frontline activism. She has been an intern for the City of Portland’s BES and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in D.C. and the CA Water Resource Control Board. In 2017 Brook was awarded the American Indian Graduate Center’s Und...

In this episode, we interview Dr. Cutcha Rising Baldy (Hupa, Karuk, Yurok, enrolled Hoopa Valley Tribe) Department Chair and Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. Cutcha shares her unique perspective growing up in the Trinity and Klamath River Basin. Her personal stories inspire us to follow the example of the Hupa, Karuk, and Yurok Tribes and remind us that despite the colonizing forces of the United States and Gold Rush era, these tribes are still here...

The Klamath River is slated to be the largest dam removal project in the history of the United States. Removing these dams will open up over 400 miles of salmon, trout, and eel habitat. Find out what's at stake and what it takes to protect a watershed. In this episode, we interview Regina Chichizola (she/her), Co-director of Save California Salmon. She shares some of their 20-year history of advocating for dam removal with communities on the Klamath River in Northern California and Sout...